Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 103681 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 415(@250wpm)___ 346(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103681 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 415(@250wpm)___ 346(@300wpm)
Her blood seemed to bubble in her veins as anger unfurled inside her. It was the promise to keep her safe that did it. The last person who’d said that to her had been Dawn when she first arrived at the shelter . . . because she’d been all alone—lost and half feral. She hated to think about that time in her life. “Just let it go.”
“You know I won’t.”
“It’s not your—”
“Don’t tell me this isn’t my business. Everything about you is my business.”
She clenched her fists. “Just leave it.”
Ryan cupped her nape. “Tell me, Kenna. Trust me to keep you safe.”
There was that promise again. “I don’t know!” She practically leapt out of the door and marched toward the building.
Sure he’d heard her wrong, Ryan got out of the car and went after her. “What?”
At the top of the stairs leading to her apartment, she pivoted on the spot. “I don’t know, okay,” she said through her teeth. “I can’t give you the answers you want because I don’t have them.”
Ryan followed her as she stomped down the stairs, unlocked the door, and went inside. He watched her warily as she dumped her purse on the coffee table before heading to the kitchen, where a mug and coffee machine bore the brunt of her anger. “Makenna . . . I don’t understand.”
Taking a steadying breath, Makenna dragged a hand through her hair. “I just don’t remember any of what happened. My mother and I were banished. She told me I was just a toddler at the time, so maybe that’s why I have no memories of the pack or what happened. If my birth name is different, it was changed long before I was old enough to remember. The answers to all your questions died with my mother when she was attacked by a group of falcon shifters, for fun.”
Her pain echoed in every word. Ryan felt something in his chest tighten as he looked at her standing there, eyes blazing with anger and hurt. Before he knew it, he was moving toward her.
She backed away. “No.”
Ryan cupped her nape and pulled her against him, holding her there. He’d never been good at giving comfort, but he couldn’t just do nothing. Her pain pulled at him, made his stomach churn. He stroked a hand over her hair. All this time he’d thought she was keeping secrets from him; he hadn’t for one moment guessed that she’d held back because it was too painful to admit that she simply didn’t know the truth. “I can find them, Makenna. Give me everything you do know about the pack, and I’ll find them.”
“I don’t want to find them.”
She’d shocked him again. In her shoes, he’d want the whole story—all the facts. “You deserve to know where you come from. You deserve to know why you and your mother were banished.”
Stepping back, Makenna shrugged. “If she’d wanted me to know, she would have told me.”
“She never mentioned the pack?”
“Once.” It had been the time when they were evicted after her mom lost her job. “She said that we didn’t deserve this, and she hoped those bastards paid for it.”
“What about your father?”
Pain lanced her chest. “I asked about him once, and she started crying. I never asked again.” Fiona Wray had been a strong woman who hardly ever cried. It had been disturbing to see. And it had made Makenna feel like total shit. “I’m not interested in knowing what happened. Who I was before doesn’t matter.”
Bullshit. “I think it does matter to you.”
“Oh, really?”
“There are lots of different ways you could help the shelter. What do you do? Rehome loners. You track down their families and you reunite them. On some level, you do want to know about your past.” She sucked in a sharp breath, looking as if he’d slapped her. “I’m not trying to hurt you. I would never purposely do that.”
Recalling Taryn’s words, Makenna nodded. “I know. And I appreciate that you want to help. But I’m asking you to let this alone. Okay?”
“You deserve to know the truth, Kenna. And they deserve to pay.”
That dark, dangerous rumble made everything in Makenna still. There was vengeance in his eyes—the uncharacteristic display of emotion made her swallow hard. “They will. Karma’s a bitch.” She pressed a kiss to his jaw. “Let it go.”
He didn’t say anything, just held her. But Makenna didn’t believe for one second that he’d acquiesced. He was a determined male driven by the need to protect and defend. There would be no changing his mind if he was set on tracking down the people he believed wronged her. Hell.
Makenna was running late when she left her apartment the next morning to head for the shelter. She stopped dead at the sight of a middle-aged female standing beside her Mustang, jaw clenched, wearing the glare from hell. Approaching, Makenna cocked a brow. “Is there a problem?”